A win from the heavens

Critical win for the A’s on Sunday. Let’s not make any bones about it. The world would not have come to an end had the A’s been swept by the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend, but it would’ve looked considerably more gray. They needed to taste a little success, so they had reason to feel good going forward, and Mark Ellis’ walk-off slam did the trick.

That said, the A’s found out how they measured up to AL West’s best team, and clearly, they come up quite short. It took a stiff like Chris Bootcheck coming out of the bullpen for the A’s to get a match-up that favored them, and that’s not going to happen too often. What I took out of the series was that the Angels’ lineup is deeper, their starting pitching will shut down the A’s, and the bullpens are relatively even.

In other words, the A’s aren’t in the Angels’ league. At least not as presently constructed with Frank Thomas, Ryan Sweeney, etc., on the disabled list. Not that they were built with 2008 supremacy in mind. At least now, they have an idea of how much improvement still is needed.

Four more series still left with the Angels, and a lot can happen in the final 16 weeks, so keep that in mind, too.

rhurd

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Does anybody know what happened to Bobby Crosby durig this game? I was listening on and off because I was stuck on my reserve weekend duty, but I heard something about a sprain of some sort. The backup kid Petit filled in just fine, but another bat out of the lineup wouldn’t be a good thing.

Bee

Hi, Rick,

Yes, the Angels are probably a stronger team in most repects than the A’s, but that would only be dire if the A’s only played them. Fortunately, both teams play the other teams in the league and funny things happen. The last time we won the Western Division, the Angels were touted as the best team in the division, but they didn’t win it. And the only time the A’s would go head to head with them where the stronger team usually wins is in the Playoffs if one team won the west and the other the wild card. It could and has happened and that might be a problem.

But the A’s seem to find a way to beat teams that are better than they are on paper. Hard to explain why this happens, but I’ll give a nod to Billy Beane and the will to win exhibited by the plyers from the top to the bottom of the batting order.

That song from the Broadway Show “Damn Yankees” seems appropriate on many levels. The A’s players do have “Heart” in abundance. That’s what makes it so much fun to watch them play. And the dreaded Yankees move in to the visitors clubhouse today for three games. The A’s have a better record than the Yankees and I hope that “Heart” prevails over the most expensive roster in the MLB. It boggles the mind that the Yankees are spending $209,081,577 on salaries this year, and the A’s are spending a mere $47,967,126 (both figures as of the start of the season.) To put that in perspective, the Yankees are spending 4.5 times as much for a poorer record than the A’s. It just goes to show you that money can’t always buy a winning team, and the lack of it, in the right hands, often can.

Yes, the Angels are a tough team, and if we played them all the time, they would probably win. But we don’t, and that’s baseball. Let’s see where the two teams (or three, if we count the Yankees) are in September.